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iOS 12.1 Extends Controversial Processor Throttling Feature To the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X (mashable.com)

With iOS 12.1, Apple introduced a bunch of new features like Group FaceTime and dozens of new emoji. But the company also elected to add a controversial new performance management feature to the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. From a report: For the uninitiated, back in December 2017, Apple confirmed that it would sometimes slow down older iPhones through a software update in order to prevent unexpected shutdowns. The result was that certain models -- iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, 7, and 7 Plus -- would often perform poorly after being updated to the newest version of iOS. Users had long suspected Apple was throttling older iPhones, but it wasn't until Geekbench published an expose that the company publicly admitted it was, indeed, slowing down older iPhones -- albeit, for a good reason. Apple said in its explanation of the throttling issue that its goal was "to deliver the best experience for customers" and essentially argued the practice of throttling was a feature -- not a bug as it had been reported. Apple's solution was to give iPhone owners some extra control over the feature and offer a reduced cost for battery replacements.

5 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Transparency by sjbe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm not sure what more people could want them to do on this subject.

    What people want is for Apple to be up front and transparent about this sort of "feature". Apple basically hid the fact they were doing this from everyone despite strong suspicions that something like it was happening. This makes it look (true or not) like Apple was up to something shady and/or coersive. Their explanation of trying to save the battery isn't implausible but by hiding the fact they were doing it it looks strongly like they were degrading performance to force upgrade sales. Had Apple been transparent about it from day one it would have been a non-issue.

  2. Re:It's optional now. by DarkOx · · Score: 2, Insightful

    personally - I'd like them to offer a phone that is maybe a few mills thicker but has swap-able batteries. That's just me though apparently.

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  3. Re:Got to give it to apple by mark-t · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Which bullshit? That running a degraded battery at full performance can cause an unexpected shutdown?

    Do you have some objective evidence to back up the notion that this is made up, or are you assuming that because they weren't up front about it right away, that this must necessarily be a lie?

    Do you similarly believe it is impossible for a person who may have been caught in a lie to later tell the truth? There may be cause to doubt what they say, but there is no objectively valid reason to conclude that everything that they say is necessarily false before it has even been fact-checked.

    Oh, and their claim is verifiable anyways... so there's that too.

  4. Re:It's optional now. by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I know I would like the ability to remove the battery and have a completely shut off device. Or if I go camping to have a spare battery or two versus have power cells which I have to have a cord for etc etc.

  5. Re:What I don't like about this feature by Arkham · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The battery in modern smartphones isn't soldered in. Not on iPhones, or Android or anything else. Glued maybe, but that's to save size and money, not to prevent people from being able to replace the battery. That's not at all iPhone specific though; every modern Android phone is in the same boat. Neither Samsung, Google, nor any others seem to offer user-replaceable batteries.

    The market has spoken. People prefer thin light phones with bigger batteries over fat heavy ones with short battery lives that they can replace themselves.

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